Lucknow court blasts case: Life sentence to 2 accused

LUCKNOW: More than a decade after the Lucknow civil court serial blasts, two accused in the case were awarded life sentence by the court of additional district judge (second) Babita Rani on Monday. The court also imposed a fine of ₹6 lakh each on both the convicts.

LUCKNOW: More than a decade after the Lucknow civil court serial blasts, two accused in the case were awarded life sentence by the court of additional district judge (second) Babita Rani on Monday.

Tariq Qasmi of Azamgarh and Mohammad Akhtar of Ramban in Kashmir were awarded life sentence . The court also imposed a fine of ₹6 lakh each on the convicts. They were members of banned terrorist outfit Harkat– ul-Jihad –ul-Islam (HuJI).

On November 23, 2007, two blasts took place in the Lucknow civil court around 1.32pm – one under a banyan tree and another at the cycle stand. However, no casualty was reported. Simultaneous blasts also took place in Varanasi and Faizabad courts in which 15 people died. In all, six blasts took place in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi within a span of 25 minutes. The STF arrested Khalid Mujahid and Tariq Qasmi from Barabanki railway station on December 22, 2007. The cops recovered two bags containing explosives , detonators, SIM cards and other objectionable material. Akhtar was arrested from his home stateon December 27 the same year. During trial, Mujahid died in police custody in May 2013 .